Swing
by vincey
Summary: Reno and Rude head to Nibelheim and meet an unexpected new friend in the Shinra Mansion. Will teaming up with the ex-Turk make their job easier?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own FF7.

Note: The story begins around the time Cloud and Sephy head for Nibelheim in the game.

**Chapter One**

The brownish bug twitched its antennae, trying to pick up the muffled sounds. Six legs crawled towards the door where a ribbon of daylight seeped into the rotting floor. Strange voices and a musical jangling of metal grew distinct.

"One of these should work." One voice came, assertive, from between the cracks of the old door. Two comprehensive antennae twitched and six legs scuttled away.

"Here, let me."

The escaping roach felt the staccato clip of heels underneath its six feelers before the loud crash of heel and wood. The door suddenly swung open, surprisingly wide, rusted hinges and all, the wide arc catching the bug in the middle of its escape and sweeping it to the wall where door gave a last bang, crushing the vital goo out of our little friend's body.

Hands jammed into pockets, the executioner casually inspected the dark lobby, the musty furniture and the dusty spotlight from the window. "Hey, Rude, you don't think that we actually beat them to the place this time, do you?"

Rude had already made his way to the stair landing. "It appears so." He mumbled.

"Well that's just great." Reno replied, scratching his head in exasperation. "Now we have to wait." He turned around to face his partner but Rude wasn't there. "Hey where are you?"

"Up here." Rude's voice drifted almost inaudibly from the upper hallway. "We might as well look around."

Shrugging, Reno climbed up the stairs, following Rude's footprints visibly printed on the dusty floor. "Might as well set up an ambush." He grinned, trailing the prints until he reached a dead end into a sparsely furnished bedroom. Perplexed, he walked around the odd brick wall were Rude's prints halted. "Hey, Rude, did you get attacked by a monster or some—WOAH".

Reno had walked back to where the footprint was and the wall had suddenly opened, causing him to throw himself back to the old bed in surprise. A very patient Rude stood watching him from the newly opened doorway. "I found a secret passage, but it's too dark for me to go any further."

Reno regained his composure and regarded his friend with a straight face. "You mean too dark with or without those shades?"

* * *

"At last!" Reno cried, hopping off the final step. Rude was close behind him, not wanting to stray too far away from the person with superior eyesight. "Spiral staircases then a ladder, this place better have something interesting or I'm cutting a b—"

"This must be where they built the lab." Rude said meditatively. "The lab where they conducted the JENOVA project."

Reno whistled in amazement. "You don't say. Well now that's a reason to look around, come on!" He recklessly charged through the dark hall.

Like a patient man, Rude followed him with steady, clipped strides, blindly feeling his way through. A harmless bat flew past him and landed on a protrusion on the wall. He shooed it away and inspected the alien object with his fingers, it was, undeniably, a doorknob.

There was a sudden crash at the far end of the hall, Reno's voice echoed back to him. "I found the lab!" Ignoring him, Rude took out his set of keys and methodically inserted each one into the doorknob.

Presently, Reno jogged over to him and impishly peered over his shoulder. "Need some help?"

There was no time to reply, Rude had to duck from Reno's sudden roundhouse kick and the third door of the day forcibly swung open.

Rude adjusted his glasses and entered. It was too dark to see anything, he was about to leave when Reno turned on a flashlight that revealed the room to be a catacomb of some sort, furnished with lidless coffins and sprawling skeletons.

"Woah, would you look at this place." Reno whistled. "Creepy."

"Where'd you get that flashlight?"

"Found it in the lab." Reno shrugged, swinging the light around. "Now why do you suppose that one is shut?" He whispered at length. The light had fallen on the only closed coffin, conspicuously placed in the center of the room. "Think something's in there?"

"Nobody alive." Rude replied. "There's nothing here, let's go check out that lab."

"Hold on, let me take a quick peek."

"What for?"

"Well, aren't you the least bit curious?" Reno responded excitedly. "Maybe it's some old Shinra bigwig?"

"Likely not."

"You aren't scared are you?" Reno teased, a rascally grin forming in his lips.

"That is the oldest trick in the book." Rude sighed, walking away. "Do what you want."

Reno forehead crinkled. Fine let him miss all the action. Reno stalked carefully towards the coffin and shone the light on its surface, trying to look for an epitaph. "Nothing." He whispered, the atmosphere called for whispering. "Now how do I get this thing open?" He set the flashlight between his teeth so that the bulb still shone on the coffin lid and, with both hands, pushed the lid with all his might.

"Let me."

"Uh aht?" Reno turned toward the door, flashlight still between his teeth, casting a circle of white light on Rude's form in the entryway. "Oh, ow u omm?"

"It's too dark for me to go anywhere else." Rude replied frankly.

Reno shrugged and stepped aside, providing Rude with light (with his hands this time) as he spasmodically regained the feeling in his jaws. "You don't have to open it all the way. Just enough for me to use my Electro-Mag Rod to prise it open."

Rude acquiesced with a nod, positioned himself perpendicular to the length of the coffin and pushed the heavy lid forward. The loud grinding of the lid and casket reverberated through the room.

"Hold it. That's enough." Reno brandished his baton cheerily and stepped into the fray. "Now I'll just stick this in and—"

_...To wake me from the nightmare._

"D-did you say something?" Reno's head whipped around to face Rude. The latter shaking his head.

"Then what was—"

The voluntary sliding of the lid cut him off midsentence. The grinding of the lid and casket was a countdown to something he no longer wanted to see. Speechless and wide-eyed, he turned to Rude for some pragmatic words of wisdom.

"M-must be the wind." Rude stammered, eyes growing larger than his shades could cover.

The grinding stopped.

_Who is it!?_

Reno and Rude let out a strangled yelpand frantically raced towards the door, Reno with his flashlight in the lead, but before they could reach the opening, the door swung shut with a loud bang.

"M-must be the wind."

"From inside?!" Reno replied, half mad, and applied one foot on the plane of the door for support as he pulled desperately at the doorknob. "It won't open! Quick, hand me one of your—"

A distinct frush of movement from behind sent chills up their spines. Slowly they turned their heads around to see a shape of a man slowly rise from the casket. Reno's hand involuntarily aimed the light at the figure, revealing an icy white face and blood-red eyes.

"...Never seen you before. You must leave." The strange man said, completely devoid of emotion.

"W-we were just about to!" Reno replied, aiming the light on himself out of some subconscious politeness.

The strange man watched the pair work nervously on the doorknob, catching snatches of blue suit and discreet rivulets on the immaculate material, telltale signs of a concealed weapon.

"Why don't you kick it down again?"

"Because I don't want to make sudden movements." Reno hissed, struggling with the pick and the flashlight.

"You are Turks." The strange man inputted matter-of-factly.

Reno turned around, his interest on the doorknob put on hold for the moment. "Yeah, that's right. How do you know about the Turks?"

"I... it doesn't matter, it's been too long." The strange man replied. "I have nothing to say to strangers. Get out. This mansion is the beginning of your nightmare."

"You can say that again." Reno scoffed, regaining his wits. "Come on, Rude. Let's get out of here before Cloud or Sephiroth shows up without a set table."

The strange man's brow visibly twitched. "Sephiroth!? You know Sepiroth?"

"You know Sepiroth?" Reno asked at the same time. He stepped forward, a vision of brutish confidence. "How do you know Sephiroth? Just who are you anyway?"

The strange man stood up and made a gigantic back-flip, landing gracefully on the top edge of the casket. "You start first."

Reno scratched his head in deep thought. "Should we, Rude?" He whispered conspiratorially.

"It seems to be the only way to get our answers. I want to find out what he knows too."

"He or it." Reno answered, studying the red eyes and pale skin a speculatively. "Alright, then. It all started when..."

* * *

"...so that's how we ended up here." Reno finished, getting comfortable on one of the open caskets. He watched the strange man, waiting for him to reply. "Hey, man, you alright?"

The strange man's eyes were closed, as if he were meditating or sleep-roosting.

"Think he's asleep again?" Reno whispered to Rude.

Rude's reply was cut off by the stranger. "Hearing your stories, has added upon me yet another sin." He climbed off the ledge and back into the casket. "More nightmares shall come to me now, more than I previously had." He picked up the lid and pulled it over the casket with ease.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Reno rushed towards him, unafraid now that icebreakers were in order. "You have to tell us your side of the story!"

"I cannot speak." The strange man replied, replacing the lid. "Now...please leave."

Reno boldly kept it from shutting completely. "At least, tell us what—I mean, who you are."

"I was with... the Shinra Manufacturing Department of Administrative Research."

"Whoa slow down there!" Reno cried in disbelief. "You where-a-TURK?"

"My name, my name is Vincent Valentine." He continued. "Tell me, since you're with Shinra, do you know Lucrecia?"

"Oh now you want to be friendly." Reno rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry, no, who's Lucrecia? And what's with you being a Turk?"

"Lucrecia was the woman who gave birth to Sephiroth." Rude answered from behind. "As for Vincent Valentine, that was the name of the Turk who accompanied the scientists 30 years ago during the JENOVA project. It was assumed he was killed in Mt. Nibel, his body was never found." Reno gave him a strange look. "It's all in here." Rude fished out a sheaf of files from his inner pocket. "Discussed in our briefing"

"Oh." Reno said. "Wait, 30 years ago? What were you an embryo?" He whipped his head back to Vincent and realized the lid was fully closed. "Hey! That's not fair!" He cried and attempted to open the coffin again, without much progress.

"Forget about it, Reno." Rude said, gesturing the newly opened door with a triumphant straight face. "Let's go."

"Yeah, whatever." Reno leisurely patted the lid. "Good night, fella."

* * *

The pair made their way back to the dusty lobby. Rude went about planting gas bombs in strategic nooks and crannies. "This should excite the dormant monsters enough to give Cloud a warm welcome."

"What's gonna keep them from attacking us too?" Reno inquired, cocking an eyebrow.

"Um, nothing."

"Great."

"We should go now. It's almost sundown, the monsters will do the work for us."

Reno shrugged, sidling towards the door. ""Whatever you say, ma—AAH." He staggered back at the sudden drop of Vincent from the ceiling, blocking the entrance mere inches away from Reno.

"Do you know Hojo?" He demanded.

"Why don't you make up your mind already? Do you want to be a creepy sleeping zombie or not?"

"We know Hojo." Rude replied civilly. "He still works for the Shinra Science Department."

"All right." Vincent inclined his head with an assertive air. "I've decided to go with you."

"You whaaaat?" Reno spluttered.

"Being a former Turk, I may be of help to you."

"Yeah but—"

"Let us leave this place." Vincent interrupted, serenely exiting the building. Rude followed without a word.

"Rude! Hey, Rude! You're okay with this?" Reno cried following them out. "Hey, hey wait for me!"

The door slammed shut and a brown scuttling insect fell off the wall. Relieved to have escaped its temporary prison, it crawled away like a martyr, enduring the disgusting gash on its side.


	2. Chapter 2

The orange pool of light on the bottom of the hole confirmed that someone was there. Reno picked his way down the ladder with practiced efficiency, landing with a soft thump on the basement floor. A row of torches burned on one side of the tunnel leading to the lab, the thick smell of pitch pervaded his nostrils. He was more than a little surprised at the scene. They had left the mansion just a few hours ago and had kept watches on both sides of the village and he was certain none of the villagers had the capacity to reach the basement alive, what with the monsters and traps they had set up. He pushed back a vague thought of a second Vincent manifesting itself and cautiously walked forward, gripping his Electro-Mag Rod. The only conclusion to be made in that situation was that Cloud and his friends had somehow snuck past their watch.

A slow, moaning creak jolted him to full alertness. One of the large double doors of the lab was opening. Reno backed up against a splash of shadow on the wall and fixed his eyes on the door. A stooped figure in a white coat stepped out painstakingly amidst the sound of its own mumbling. The apparition pushed the door closed and walked away, allowing its rather unpleasant countenance to enter the light of the torches.

"What in Odin's name is he doing here?" Reno thought incredulously, recognition flashing across his face. Deciding that the unwelcome acquaintance was no threat, he revealed himself, stepping out of the shadows with exaggerated slowness. "Dr. Hojo."

The esteemed doctor was still a good few feet away. He let out a strangled curse and whipped his head around in search of the disembodied voice. Reno rolled his eyes, an amused smirk tugging one side of his lips. He walked towards the doctor and quickly diminished the space between them.

Hojo caught the movement ahead of him and squinted to see against the glare. As the assailant grew closer the blue suit told him all he needed to know and he contorted his face into a very black scowl. Reno cheerily waved with his free hand.

"Nobody told us you were coming, doctor, or else we would have prepared a better welcome." Reno said noncommittally. "Who's with you? Elena? Shotgun? Rod? Tell me it's Rod."

"What are you talking about you half-brain? And I have been here since the beginning of the JENOVA project. I never left! You and your people know this as you have been pestering me the past few months!"

"Beginning of the JENOVA project? He must be getting senile. Poor guy, it was only a matter of time." Reno thought dismissively. "Whatever you say, doctor, just tell me where the others are."

"There are no others!" Hojo replied, a look of panic flashed across his face right after he spoke.

"Right, sure. You don't expect me to believe you came all this way here by yourself without protection, do you? Just tell me where the others are, old man, and they'll sort everything out."

"O-of course. The others." Hojo said cryptically. "This way."

Reno followed close behind, a frown forming on his brow. He was taller than Hojo and had seen the top of his head multiple times. Despite his lackadaisical ways, he was a very observant person, a product of years of service. Staring at Hojo's head now he could tell something was amiss. It was too black. Where did his gray hair go? It was not like the doctor to have a sudden spurt of vanity. He sidestepped discreetly and studied the left side of Hojo's face. A chill jolted up his spine as he noticed that it was less lined than usual, haggard and fatigued yes, but definitely more youthful. Before he could utter a word, Hojo stopped and gestured towards a door at the side of the wall.

Reno turned toward it with a feeling of dread. It was a brown door, less faded than he expected it to be. The doorknob was clean, apparently much used. Hojo pulled out a key and reached for the knob and Reno quickly smacked his hand away with his baton before it could be turned.

"What are you trying to pull?" Reno demanded. "Rude and I went in there just this morning."

"I-impossible!" Hojo stammered, beads of sweat forming on his forehead. "If you had then…"

"Then what?"

Hojo opened his mouth and closed it again, nervously trying to think of a reply. "I have the only key!" He exclaimed in hysteric triumph. "There was no way you could have entered!"

"Is that all?" Reno crossed his arms in exasperation. "I just kicked it open. There was nothing in there except a bunch of bones and…"

"And?"

"From what I've gathered, Shinra has no idea Vincent exists. I'm not letting this loon in on it that's for sure." Reno thought. Aloud, he replied: "Nothing. Fine, open it. Then show me where the others are after."

Hojo stared at him with another look of triumph, then it mellowed into a sneer. He quickly unlocked the door, turned the knob and pushed it inwards. The room was pitch black and there was an odd smell. "Have a look inside."

Reno was determined to get the charade over with and find the other Turks. He carelessly strode to the entrance and peered in. At first he could see nothing and he would have left it at that and taken the doctor away to find the others, then the torchlight from behind his head flickered, revealing a flash of a very familiar blue. His eyes darted to a corner of the room where he had seen the stack of caskets that morning. The torches from outside danced on the top casket, it wasn't closed properly for something jutted out between the lips of the wood. To his horror, he realized it was an arm. It was wearing blue sleeves.

A sharp pain blossomed on his back and stumbled in surprise. He felt the warm blood dampen his shirt. He turned to face Hojo, who was pointing a smoking gun at him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Reno cried aghast.

"I've just about had it with you Turks and your condescending ways. There is no end to your meddling is there? My research is far too important. The lives of a few thugs are of no consequence to me!"

Reno paid little attention to the speech. He wasn't too deep into the room and a couple of strides would take him to the door. A feint to the side would probably secure him a safe escape, Hojo was not the most physically alert person in the world. His muscles tensed as he prepared to spring forward. Hojo continued his mad soliloquy and Reno counted, one, two…

"Three!"

Reno threw his body forward in a powerful spring and felt himself go airborne. Then something caught his foot and he crashed the length of his body on the ground. The door swung shut and the room was immediately dark. Cursing, he felt his pant leg for whatever sharp object hooked him but found none. In the quiet he perceived breathing that was not his own. He pulled his legs to himself and backed away, one hand clamped against his bleeding side. A draft passed in front of his face and he swung around, then it was behind him and he turned again. He placed his Electro-Mag Rod in front of his chest defensively but a powerful swipe from an unknown creature tossed it aside. Reno jumped back and in the blackness he could make out two sinister slits of yellow, staring at him, unblinking. There was a horrible animal roar and the creature bounded forward.

Reno regained his senses and jumped to the side, merely guessing his opponent's position. He felt the wind of a large swipe pass near his face. It was a narrow miss. The eyes disappeared for a second, the creature's back was facing towards him. Then it turned and re-fixed its terrible eyes on him.

"I won't go down easy." Reno declared, fishing for materia in his pocket. He made a mental note to take some Cures for Rude _when_ he got out. He refused to think by ifs.

The monster made a low growling sound, almost a purr, and sprang forward. Reno grabbed onto what he presumed to be a bone and blocked a very powerful claw, grappling for him inches from his face. With his free hand, he thrust a punch aimed at the eyes. To his surprise it was blocked by a firm hand, leathered, but not quite so beastly.

Reno blinked, confused, and sat up. He was no longer in the basement but in bed. The windows were open and the beginnings of morning wafted in. Vincent stood over him, his hand enclosing his fist.

"You were having a nightmare." Vincent observed. He released Reno and assumed a position by the window.

Reno lifted his shirt and looked for a wound. Finding nothing, he pulled it back down and lifted his face to see Vincent eyeing him with a raised eyebrow. "I guess I was." He grinned. "Where's Rude?"

"He left urgently after receiving a call. I was told to stay here with you." Vincent inspected the clock on the wall. He turned back to Reno, who was patting himself methodically, half-listening. "That was an hour ago."

Reno turned his attention back to him, frowning. "What was the call about?"

"I was not informed." Vincent spoke slowly, choosing his words. "But I overheard."

"Well?"

"It seems that your sentries ran into complications."

At this juncture, a harassed Rude burst into the room. He had an angry bruise forming on his bald head. Reno sat up and regarded his partner's disheveled appearance with a grimace. "What happened to you?"

"I received a report from a sentry about an hour ago and went to investigate." Rude explained in between pants. "When I arrived I was knocked out and I ran back as soon as I came to."

Reno laughed remorselessly. "We're in deep shit now. The boss will be furious, they slipped through us again."

Rude shook his head. "It wasn't them that knocked me out. They were the ones who revived me." He blushed at some hidden memory.

"You let them escape?"

"I had no choice, it was three against one. Our men are all dead." Rude went about the room, busying himself with packing. "Whoever attacked them wasn't the one who attacked me. They were all cut open."

"Oh, for Shiva's sake." Reno breathed in comprehension. "Where did the bastard go?"

"A procession was heading into the Nibel mountains, that's our best bet."

"That will be messy." Reno thought aloud. "We'll need some locals to get us through quickly."

Rude shook his head. "Not necessarily." He turned and Reno followed his gaze and landed his eyes on Vincent.

Vincent looked from one to the other and nodded. "As soon as you're ready."


End file.
